Return to Yalta (80 years later)

In geopolitics, Yalta is associated with the 1945 conference and Roosevelt’s approval of Stalin’s decision to allow the eastern European nations bordering Russia to have regimes aligned with Moscow (the American president died shortly afterwards and his successor, Harry Truman, thought he had made too many concessions). In football, it is associated with Rubin, created in 2009, which joined the Crimean Premier League after the 2014 invasion and was absorbed by Russia two years ago against UEFA’s orders. In history, the first siege of Sevastopol was in 1854-1855, during the Crimean War, by British, French, Ottoman and Sardinian troops, to neutralise the threat to the Mediterranean posed by the Black Sea Fleet, and the second, in World War II, when the Axis forces dropped twenty thousand tons of bombs and left only eleven buildings intact. In football, with Sevastopol, whose Ukrainian edition died in 2014, and the Russian one was born. Geopolitics and sport. The ball is also adapting to the new world order.

Former Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan and Chelsea player Andri Shevchenko has been president of the Ukrainian FA for a year and says his main aim is to make the sport viable, given the precarious state of the finances of clubs such as Kolos Kovalivka and Chornomorets Odesa. “Playing is already a success,” says the former international, who is campaigning for a seat on UEFA’s executive committee – whether he will get it will be revealed in April. Shakhtar Donetsk have more resources at their disposal thanks to their owner, who has found the money to sign Brazilian prospect Elias for €17m.